hi everyone,

after browsing through many a post on many a forum, i have
decided to register and make my first linux-related post; unfortunately
it is about a problem i am having at the moment.

my problem is 'improper behaviour of my mouse'; i am using an
usb mouse, called 'wheel mouse optical usb and ps/2 compatible',
manufactured by microsoft. it has been in my service for over a year
and i have had no problems with it... that is, until i finally made the
switch to linux last week. i will spare you all the story of how and why
i switched to linux, and will tell you only that apart from this problem,
i love linux.

now for a bit more detailed description of my problem; my pointer
moves erratically, and so far i have noticed it does this when the
web browser i use (galeon) renders pages or when there is (any?
or maybe a lot?) of cpu usage. but there's more.. quite often, my
mouse seems to lose power; its led dies and i lose all power over
the pointer, which sits on my desktop unmovable. the only option
i know of to regain control of my pointer, is to reboot.

so there you have it. quite the annoying problem if you ask me

as i mentioned at the start of this post, i did not decide to post,
until after i found no solution anywhere else. i did read some
suggestions though, but non worked.

i will tell you what i have tried.

i have tried tweaking my harddisk, using the hdparm console
command (enabling dma, setting ultradma 5, etc), i have disabled
acpi by appending 'noapic' to /etc/lilo.conf. i have updated to the
latest kernel, and XFree version, and have compiled and installed
the version 31.23 nvidia drivers to enable hardware acceleration.

my mouse is the only usb device connected; nonetheless i
thought of increasing the usb bandwidth, but i could not find a
way to do this, so it came no further then an idea.

maybe an irq-conflict, but i do not know how to check for this..

i also tried an usb/ps/2 plug, but after a while the led on my
mouse would light up and stay that way, and my pointer would
be unmovable again until i rebooted.

i'm afraid my years of experience with microsoft-based dos's and
OS's are of no help here, and since i'm quite eager to mix myself in
the linux community, i post here and hope someone has an idea; i
will try anything, as long as it does not require reinstalling (i've done
this quite a lot the past week, and i prefer to fix problems, not to
reinstall and hope they do not resurface).

i'll end this post with some system info, maybe it will be of use:

cpu: athlon (non-xp) 1400MHz
mainboard: asus a7v266 via-chipset
gfx-card: geforce2pro 64mb
soundcard: sblive 5.1
tv-card: pinnacle pctv pro (bt878)
nic: realtek 8139
hdd: western digital 80gb 7200rpm 8mb cache

thanks for reading this everyone, if there are any questions,
feel free to ask.

kind regards.

I had the same problem with my optical mouse, even when I was using windows. I think it's a problem with the power supply... Is the mouse connected to a hub? If so, try connecting it to one of the main USB ports on the machine. If that still doesn't work, try a regular USB mouse.

thank you for the prompt response.

the mouse is not connected to a hub; it is connected to
one of two usb ports on the mainboard. i had two extra
ports on an usb-card connected, but i removed that card
thinking it might be the problem and because i did not
use it anyway.

but... when using windows, i have never had such
problems, which would mean that there is no power-
related problem (right?).

do you know which driver you are using for your XF86?
you can find it in /etc/X11/XF86config
for your mouse you should use imps/2 for the driver. Its probably what you are using but it never hurts to check. also instead of rebooting have you tried unplugging and replugging the mouse into the PC? I know its a pain but its worth a try atleast.

hi palin,

i set my driver to 'nvidia', to work with the compiled nvidia driver to be able to use 3D hardware acceleration. default was 'nv'. my mouse protocol is set to imps/2. in drakconf i chose usb -> wheel mouse. mouse works, wheel works; so i think it's the right choice.

i tried re-plugging it, but the led stayed off and my pointer motionless.

and nothing is a pain, compared to this problem at the moment

thank you for your response.

could you post your mouse driver section from your XF86config

out of curisoity do you have pnp os turned off in the bios??

i have plug and play off in bios, and here's my mouse section
(though the mouse works, though quirky, so how could settings
be incorrect... but i won't go in against any advice here):

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/usbmouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

there

ok after searching around I'm not really sure what your issue is
mmmmm but here are some things to look at
type lsmod (asroot) and post the results here.

usb legacy support enabled in bios

and adding the line under i think the mouse section
Option "Resolution" "<screen Resolution>" ie 800, 1024

thank you.

i will try your suggestions. usb legacy support is off at the moment
in bios, i will turn it on. also i will look up the format of the resolution
option for in the mouse section of XF86Config.

i will report back.

i looked up the resolution option:

the following option will set the mouse device resolution
to n counts per inch, if possible:

option "resolution" "n"

not all mice and OSs can support this option. this option
can be set in the xf86setup program.

i think it only affects precision.. but what the heck;
i'll set it, and i'll use something else i found too;
'samplerate', which is set in hertz.

the page i read had as recommended values 200 and 200.

like this:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/usbmouse"
Option "Resolution" "200"
Option "Samplerate" "200"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

hmm... side-tracked there.. but i'll try the bios option now.

ok. back from reboot.

i set the resolution + samplerate options to 200,
and enabled legacy usb. can't hurt, at this moment
everything seems to run fine. running 'zapper' (gnome
tv prog), x-chat and galeon..

*crosses fingers and continues reading up on
linux stuff while walking into the shadows...

I have a Microsoft (Boo Hiss ) Intellimouse Explorer which is optical and USB and here is my mouse section from XF86Config:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

I have it plugged into a USB port in my monitor though so no power problems. It sounds to me that it's a power issue rather than your set up. Have you tried another mouse?

many hours later, i was out for a bit... my mouse still works,
so i guess there is no idle-failure or something.

ok.. about the possible power issue: does linux control
the power devices get? if so: is this configurable (i would
try to increase power to my mouse). and if not, this problem
can not be caused by a problem with this mouse, since
it works fine with other OS's.

I am not trying to be uncooperative, far from it, but i will not
believe my mouse would break because i installed linux

maybe the problem is solved already; in the hours that
i am online from now i will find out if it's fixed (or at least
get hope or an idea that it is); if there's no loss of pointer
control leading to a reboot before i go to bed i will have
some faith. i will ofcourse use this system again tomorrow
and report asap if i find out something new and if the problem
still persists.

many thanks philsta, palin and jspenguin for your friendly
and constructive criticism / replies

hm.. and then, about 20minutes after i made the previous post,
my mouse died again... *sigh*.. oh well... sleep now..

new day tomorrow..

maybe a solution